Molecular epidemiology and genetic diversity of canine coronavirus from domestic dogs in Chengdu, China from 2020 to 2021 using a multiplex RT-PCR

Shanshan Wu; Xun He; Baochao Zhang; Longyi An; Lan You; Shuhan Luo; Fen Yang; Xiaofang Pei; Jiayi Chen

doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2023.105463

Molecular epidemiology and genetic diversity of canine coronavirus from domestic dogs in Chengdu, China from 2020 to 2021 using a multiplex RT-PCR

Infect Genet Evol. 2023 Aug:112:105463. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2023.105463. Epub 2023 Jun 8.

Authors

Shanshan Wu¹, Xun He², Baochao Zhang¹, Longyi An¹, Lan You³, Shuhan Luo¹, Fen Yang¹, Xiaofang Pei¹, Jiayi Chen⁴

Affiliations

¹ West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, 16#, Section 3, Renmin Road South, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
² Chengdu Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 4#, Longxiang Road, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China.
³ West China Tianfu Hospital, Sichuan University, 3966#, Section 2, South Second Section, Tianfu Avenue, Chengdu 610200, Sichuan, China.
⁴ West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, 16#, Section 3, Renmin Road South, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan, China. Electronic address: cjy.210@163.com.

PMID: 37295484
DOI: 10.1016/j.meegid.2023.105463

Abstract

Recent reports on identification of canine coronavirus (CCoV) in humans have emphasized the urgency to strengthen surveillance of animal CoVs. The fact that recombinations between CCoV with feline, porcine CoVs brought about new types of CoVs indicated that more attention should be paid to domestic animals like dogs, cats and pigs, and the CoVs they carried. However, there are about ten kinds of CoVs that infect above animals, and thus representative CoVs with zoonotic potentials were considered in this study. Multiplex RT-PCR against CCoV, Feline coronavirus (FCoV), porcine deltacoronavirus and porcine acute diarrhea syndrome coronavirus was developed to investigate the prevalence of CoVs from domestic dogs in Chengdu, Southwest China. Samples from a total of 117 dogs were collected from a veterinary hospital, and only CCoV (34.2%, 40/117) was detected. Therefore, this study focused on CCoV and its characteristics of S, E, M, N and ORF3abc genes. Compared with CoVs that are capable of infecting humans, CCoV strains showed highest nucleotide identity with the novel canine-feline recombinant detected from humans (CCoV-Hupn-2018). Phylogenetic analysis based on S gene, CCoV strains were not only clustered with CCoV-II strains, but also closely related to FCoV-II strains ZJU1617 and SMU-CD59/2018. As for assembled ORF3abc, E, M, N sequences, CCoV strains had the closest relationship with CCoV-II (B203_GZ_2019, B135_JS_2018 and JS2103). What's more, specific amino acid variations were found, especially in S and N proteins, and some mutations were consistent with FCoV, TGEV strains. Altogether, this study provided a novel insight into the identification, diversification and evolution of CoVs from domestic dogs. It is of top priority to recognize zoonotic potential of CoVs, and continued comprehensive surveillance will help better understand the emergence, spreading, and ecology of animal CoVs.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Domestic animals; Multiplex RT-PCR; Phylogenetic analysis; Structural protein genes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Animals, Domestic
Cats
China / epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections* / epidemiology
Coronavirus Infections* / veterinary
Coronavirus, Canine* / genetics
Dog Diseases* / epidemiology
Dogs
Humans
Molecular Epidemiology
Mutation
Phylogeny
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
Swine